Bosham – what a pretty village!  We were sorry to leave it!  Our lot, however, is to always keep moving.  We have several thousand miles to get round and cannot stop off at every pretty village we come to.

One of the things I quite liked about Bosham is that people tend to lose their cars there.  The following photo may give a hint as to why:

Shore Road, as may be guessed by its name, is the shoreline.  At low tide it runs along the southern outskirts of the village.  At high tide it still runs along the southern outskirts of the village, but at a depth of several feet.  We saw signs up all over the place warning people not to leave their vehicles on Shore Road without checking the tide tables first, but according to the locals we spoke to lots do.  They return from a nice long walk only to find their car underwater.  The locals spoke with a twinkle in their eyes as they told us about this.  They seemed to relish it; I can imagine they all congregate at Shore Road as the tide comes in, waiting with anticipation as the light fades and the waters creep forward, lapping against the car wheels and lapping upwards to seep through the gap between the doors; waiting for the unsuspecting grockles to arrive back, only to find that their car has been turned into an amphibious vehicle of entertainment for the local population.

I wonder if the cars in this photo still exist?  Or have they been washed away and are now happily bobbing along in some current of the south Pacific?

We could not wait for the tide to come in.  That was hours away and we had a walk to do.  We continued west and reached the outskirts of Bosham.  Here we found a memorial to villagers who had fallen in the two World Wars.

At the bottom of the plaque bearing the names of the men who had fallen in World War Two were three people with the same surname:  Stubbington.

It is small memorials in small villages such as Bosham that really bring home how war literally destroyed entire families.

Leslie Stubbington was killed in action on 7 June 1940, aged 21 years.  He is buried in Pas de Calais in France.  His brother, Thomas Stubbington was a Royal Marine, killed 23 July 1941, aged 37.  James Stubbington was killed in action in Italy on 12 July 1944, aged 33, and is buried in Arezzo War Cemetery.  All three were the sons of Thomas and Emily Ann Stubbington.  All three died in June or July, so just as their parents were mourning a terrible anniversary, they would receive news of the loss of another son.

Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):

• Shore Road, Bosham:  N 50° 49.681 W 000° 51.530
• Bosham War Memorial:  N 50° 49.728 W 000° 51.636

Walk #60 Statistics (of which this post forms the first part):

• Date of Walk: 29 September 2013
• Walk #60 total distance covered: 9.04 miles
• Coast of Britain Walk Total Distance Covered: 500.65 miles
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!